Zachary A. Wood, Ph.D Associate Professor zac@bmb.uga.edu Zac received his B.S. in chemistry (A.C.S.) from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. For his Ph.D., he studied protein X-ray crystallography under P. Andrew Karplus at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). As a postdoctoral fellow, he trained under Brian Matthews at the University of Oregon. In 2007, Zac joined the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia. He is both an American Cancer Society Research Scholar and a Georgia Cancer Coalition Scholar. Renuka Kadirvelraj, Ph.D Assistant Research Scientist renu@ccrc.uga.edu Renu has a doctoral degree in structural chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. Her postdoctoral work in powder X-ray crystallography was conducted at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand under Prof. Ward Robinson. This was followed by additional research in structural biochemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark with Prof. Sine Larsen. She has been a part of the University of Georgia’s research team at CCRC and later at the Department of Biochemistry since 2002. Her work focuses on the structure, mechanism and function of carbohydrate and nucleotide-modifying enzymes. Nicholas D. Keul Graduate Student nkeul@.uga.edu Nick graduated with a B.S. in Biochemsitry from Virginia Tech in 2013 and joined the Wood lab in early 2014. By day he pursues a deeper understanding of hUGDH through the use of various techniques including NMR, x-ray crystallography, and enzyme kinetics. By night, well...he continues the same pursuit. On the side: he finds time for the gym, being a hero, and downtown Athens. Phillip G. Gross Graduate Student phillip.gross25@.uga.edu Phillip earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University in 2014. He joined the Wood lab in 2014 through the Integrated Life Sciences program. His research focuses on the molecular basis of human UGDH allostery using protein crystallography and enzyme kinetics studies. Nathan Beattie Graduate Student nrb40134@uga.edu Andrew M. Sidlo Undergraduate Student asidlo@.uga.edu Andrew is an undergraduate student pursuing a B.S in Biochemistry with a minor in Computer Science. He has been working in the Wood Lab for almost 3 years, and is currently studying the mechanism of enzyme hysteresis and substrate binding in UGDH by utilizing Rosetta (a computational molecular modeling suite), enzyme kinetics, and protein crystallography. Justin Sanders Undergraduate Student dawg2016@.uga.edu Justin is a senior taking classes to earn a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and plans to graduate in the spring of 2016. He is currently working on determining the crystal structures of glycosyltransferases and studying the allostery of hUGDH using several kinetic techniques. John Hyunwoo Kim Undergraduate Student hjk1708@.uga.edu Hyunwoo Kim (John) is currently pursuing his final year of B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology. Currently, he is in pursuit of solving the structure of COSMC, an essential chaperone in O-glycosylation ocurring in endoplasmic reticulum. After graduation, he will pursue graduate studies in X-ray crystallography and enzymology in hopes to solve problems of this world. Ky Huynh Undergraduate Student ky.huynh25@.uga.edu Ky is an honor student pursuing his bachelor degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia. He plans to graduate in spring 2017 and then attend Medical School. In the Wood lab, Ky focuses on X-ray crystallography of different mutants of UGDH with altered allosteric properties. In addition, he is learning how to use fluorescence spectroscopy to analyze the ligand affinity in UGDH.
